For better safety, the snowplows should plow closer to the curbs, especially on 10th Ave. S.

When a vehicle is in the right hand lane this time of year, the snowbanks will push that vehicle into the center lane. It's important to have that right lane clear so that people can exit 10th Avenue South safely and so that the snowbanks don't cause wrecks.

—Emil Burns

Cascade

No one needs an AR-15

Let's talk money in the wake of the student's deaths in Florida.

Gun makers make guns, a very lucrative business. Gun makers then support the NRA, a powerful lobby. The NRA donates millions to politicians who are then held hostage. Politicians must vote as told or they will not get more money. A tragedy happens. The solution is offered: Buy more guns.

I received your reply to my communication about lack of government leadership in addressing climate change.

You state:

“The climate has been changing for millennia. Over the last few decades the Earth has been getting warmer. While the climate is changing, we still do not know how much of that change is due to human activities. We need to take steps to ensure that we do not cripple Montana, our jobs, and our families with top-down Washington regulations in the name of climate change.”

I appreciate your “straight up” response. However, it reveals a shocking lack of knowledge about climate change. The Fourth National Climate Assessment, published in 2017 and authored by scientists within multiple agencies of our own government, states:

“This assessment concludes, based on extensive evidence, that it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”

“The last few years have also seen record-breaking, climate-related weather extremes ... ”

“These trends are expected to continue over climate timescales.”

For you, Mr. Gianforte, to allow yourself to remain ignorant of climate science is willful blindness harmful to Montana, jobs and families.

—Gary Matson

Milltown

Public hearings needed on Wilderness Study Areas

During last year’s legislative session, State Representative Kerry White’s non-binding resolution to slash protections on Montana’s Wilderness Study Areas met with overwhelming opposition in the only public hearing held on that issue.

Now Sen. Daines and Rep. Gianforte have introduced legislation in Congress that would abolish WSA protections, apparently without holding a single scheduled public hearing in Montana to actually listen to Montanans. That is not what we should expect from our Congressional delegation.

Maybe a few of the WSAs don’t deserve big-W wilderness status, but many of them do qualify as wilderness, and most of them at least deserve strong consideration for some kind of special designation.

Before Sen. Daines and Congressman Gianforte push to scrap protections on these special national public lands, they should schedule numerous face-to-face public hearings around Montana and come home and really listen to what Montanans have to say about the Wilderness Study Areas.